->''"It's abhorrent what you young folks text to one another. Is English truly that difficult?"''-->-- '''Professor Fitz Quadwrangle''', ''VideoGame/QuantumConundrum''

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle It's easy 4 numbers]] 2 be substituted 4 letters in chatspeak and it needs 2 be typed quickly. However, in the same vein as XtremeKoolLetterz, numbers are often used in place of letters 2 be "hip". Most of the time, the number looks nothing like the letter it's meant 2 replace.

An awful lot of sequels will pun off of "2 / Too / To"; a few more will offer "3 / [[ThirdIs3D 3D]]" (not a pun at all, actually), and a very rare few will utilize "4 / For."

This is bound to spark countless debates on how it's actually supposed to be pronounced.

[[OlderThanTheyThink Teleprinter operators were doing this before the cellphone was even invented.]]

A subtrope of XtremeKoolLetterz. Rel8ed 2 LuckyCharmsTitle and LeetLingo.

----!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:An1me & Manga]]* The second season of ''RosarioToVampire'' is titled ''RosarioToVampire Capu2'', a play on the onomatopoeia "kapuchuu~" ("two" in Japanese sounds like "chuu").[[/folder]]

[[folder:C0mic Books]]* ''ComicBook/{{We3}}'' is a pretty straightforward one.** Was it supposed to be anything other than We Three? '''Wee'''?* ''ComicBook/HackSlash'' had a villain-of-the-issue called D1ab0lik. He was a stereotype misanthropic geek.[[/folder]]

[[folder:F1lm]]* Often used with sequels to movies, a particular kind of OddlyNamedSequel:** ''WesternAnimation/MadagascarEscape2Africa''.** ''[[Film/{{Taken}} Tak3n]]''. Yes, you read that right. Even Creator/LiamNeeson is doing it now.** Also, the horror classic ''Film/LeprechaunBack2ThaHood''. Which is a sequel, apparently implied by the number 2 (it's actually part '''6''' in the series).** ''Anime/Pokemon4Ever''** ''Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'', a sequel to the 2008 movie ''JourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth'', which can also be read without the colon as ''Journey '''to''' the Mysterious Island''.** And, taking it to a ridiculous level, ''[[Film/TheFastAndTheFurious 2 Fast 2 Furious]]''. At least [[TheFastAndTheFuriousTokyoDrift the third film]] wasn't called ''3 Fast 3 Furious''. Though that didn't stop theatres from marking it as that on their marquees. (Or the inevitable [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/222150 NewgroundsPoop]].)--->'''Creator/JamesRolfe''': ""They should have called [the fourth film] 'The Fast and the 4-ious'. Couldn't be any worse than '2 Fast 2 Furious'!"** ''Step Up 4Ever'' (this was later renamed ''Step Up: Revolution'' when it was decided to make it less about dancing and more about flash mobs).** This is parodied on ''Series/ThirtyRock'' with a fictional fifth movie in the ''Snow Dogs'' series, called ''5now Dog5''.* ''Film/{{Se7en}}''. Fans enjoy various alternative pronunciations, such as "Se-seven-en," "Seten," and "Se'en."* ''Cradle 2 the Grave''. "Born 2 the life. True 2 the code. Bad 2 the bone."* Film/LilyaFourEver* "Thir-thirteen-en-ghosts" (''Film/Thir13enGhosts''). Particularly heinous because the movie is a 2001 remake of the normally-spelled ''Film/ThirteenGhosts''.* Also to be noted is ''Film/LuckyNumberSlevin'', where the L is an upside down 7, though how we're supposed to pronounce that is anyone's guess. Lucky Number Su-sevin, perhaps?* ''2ge+ her'', a comedic film that spoofed the boy band phenomenon. It was the first film ever produced directly for air on MTV.* ''5iveGirls'', presumably pronounced ''Five-ive Girls'', a direct-to-video horror movie about five schoolgirls and Ron Perlman.* In ''Film/{{Bandslam}}'', the name of one of the main characters is Sa5m (the 5 is silent).* ''Anime/{{Interstella 5555}}: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.''* The working title for ''Film/TronLegacy'' was ''[=TR2N=]'', overlapping with LeetLingo.* ''[[Film/{{Scream 3}} Scr3am]]'' and ''[[Film/{{Scream 4}} SCRE4M]]''.* ''Film/FinalDestination5'' was almost called "5nal Destination", but this was dropped when the producers realized it looked a lot like "Anal Destination".* ''[[Series/FiveDaysToMidnight 5ive Days to Midnight]]'', a 2004 sci-fi miniseries which reads weirdly ("sive?" "five-ive?")* ''Film/{{S1m0ne}}'', to emphasize how the title character is a virtual construct.* ''[[Film/FantasticFour2015 Fantastic Four]]'' reboot's poster is "Fant'''4'''satic " * There's really no reason for the number in ''Film/FourClosed'', but it's present.* The hacker group ''[=FR13NDS=]'' in ''Film/WhoAmI''.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Liter4ture]]* Wyg&, ¼maine, @kins and S&erson: all names from Creator/AlfredBester's ''Literature/TheDemolishedMan'' (1953).* ''{{Thr3e}}''.* A children's book has a character named Susan who changes her name to, well, the title says it all: ''My Name is Sus5an Smith. The 5 is Silent. ''* ''SnowCrash'' has a minor character named Da5id. (Roman numerals, you see.)* The Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/SoulMusic'' had a band named "&U", a parody of the rock band U2.* Not actually in the book, but on the cover of ''Literature/ThirteenReasonsWhy'', the title is often spelled "Th1rteen R3asons Why".* The picture book ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Wumbers-Amy-Krouse-Rosenthal/dp/1452110220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344891172&sr=8-1&keywords=wumbers Wumbers'']] written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Tom Lichtenfeld. "What do you get when you combine a word and a number? A wumber! Paying tribute to William Steig's CDB!, best-selling book, cre8ors Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld have wri10 and illustr8ed this s2pendous book that is 1derful 4 readers in kindergar10 and up. If we've confused you, just take a look at the book—4tun8ly it has helpful pictures. We are sure you will get it ins10tly!"* ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Multiple-Bles8ings-Surviving-Thriving-Sextuplets/dp/B002PJ4LRC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353688011&sr=1-1&keywords=Multiple+Bles8ings Multiple Bles8ings]]'', Jon and Kate Gosselins' (of ''JonAndKatePlusEight'', later ''Kate Plus Eight'') book about their relationship and their children before they broke up.* [[{{Animorphs}} Cassie's mom]] is obviously not used to this, as she believes Boyz || Men is actually pronounced "Boys Eleven Men" (along with [[NineInchNails Nice is Neat]] and [[SnoopDogg Snoopy Dog]]) due to one of Marco's convoluted plans to get Cassie to buy their music [[TechnologyMarchesOn so he can make a tape of it]]. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Acti0n TV]]* ''Series/{{Numb3rs}}'' is an example. The show also did this in its opening sequence. The names of the actors would slide across the screen to the right as numbers, resolving then into the letters of the actors' names, except for a couple of them, which would remain briefly before then switching over to the letters.* In the ''Back to Earth'' miniseries for ''Series/RedDwarf'', the license plate on the ''Starbug'' automobile reads [=ST4R=] BUG. In a bonus webisode, Chris Barrie comments "You know what I always say? Wanna tell people you're a pillock? Get a personalised number plate."* ''{{Series/Revenge}}'', which uses the infinity symbol of "∞" turned 45° to substitute the "g" and tie in with Emily Thorne's "double infinity" wrist tattoo.* ''Liber8'' in {{Series/Continuum}}. Makes for a great graffiti tag.* ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "2Shy". 2Shy is a username.* The Mexican {{Telenovela}} "Amigos x Siempre"[[note]]The "x" is pronounced "por", referring to how multiplication is done in Spanish (e.g. "Tres x dos son seis", or "Three x two is six".[[/note]]; It can even be translated in a similar way (i.e. "Friends 4 Ever")* Belgian channel [[UsefulNotes/FlemishTVStations 2BE]] is this as well. Dependable on how you translate its either the common word "To be" or stands for "Two Belgium". The reason why it could be called "Two Belgium" is because it was the second tv channel that ''Medialaan'' ever owned.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Mu5ic]]* Pretty much any song written by Music/{{Prince}}.* The album ''Tr3s Lunas'' by Mike Oldfield.* There was a boyband called 5ive. I think they changed their name to be more sensible.** Music/TheJacksonFive had the last word of their name spelled the same way [[WesternAnimation/TheJackson5ive on occasion]].* They spelled out the number, but in ''That Thing You Do'' the band originally called themselves "The Oneders"; their manager made them change it to "The Wonders" because [=DJs=] were calling them "The Oh-nee-ders."* Music/AvrilLavigne, ''Sk8er boi''. There are no words.* Inverted: the band 3OH!3, who replace the number "0" with an interjection.* Boyz II Men* TomLehrer: "I am reminded at this point of a fellow I used to know whose name was Henry, only to give you an idea of what a individualist he was, he spelled it H-E-N-3-R-Y ? the three was silent, you see."* The Veronicas: "4ever"* Music/MCHammer: "2 Legit 2 Quit"* Music/NineInchNails, ''Year Zero'' remix album ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D]]''. ''This is the official title''.* VanCanto, ''One to Ten'':-->- '''Once''' we have been told a secret\\- '''Too''' risky to know\\- '''Three''' years we tried to keep silent\\- '''For''' to save our homes* Probably as a nod to Prince's influence, {{Ween}} title songs this way on occasion. "Pumpin' 4 The Man" and "Don't Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)" for instance.* Music/AliceCooper did the OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo variant with his ''Welcome To My Nightmare'' sequel ''Welcome 2 My Nightmare''. Of course, this sort of makes it impossible to say the title out loud in conversation without having to specify which of the two albums you mean. * Sander van Doorn's ''[=ELEVE11=]''.* Music/{{Megadeth}}[='=]s ''Thirteen'' is styled ''Th1rt3en'' on the cover. It's also [[ChronologicalAlbumTitle their thirteenth studio album]], and has thirteen songs (not counting bonus tracks for itunes and Japan).* "Le7els", the single of Swedish house music producer Avicii.* Canadian house music producer Music/{{Deadmau5}}.* 90s Brit dance pop band 2wo Third3.* ''Euro IV Ever'', E-type's [[ChronologicalAlbumTitle fourth album]].* CountryMusic artist Lee Brice's second album is called ''Hard 2 Love'', which doubles as a ChronologicalAlbumTitle.* "2 the Sky" on Music/RobinThicke's album ''The Evolution of Robin Thicke'', one of the few songs that doesn't put a "you" in the title as "U".* While the numbers usually aren't considered to be part of the official title, the front cover of {{Music/Journey}}'s ''Escape'' renders the title as "[=ESC4P3=]". * The artwork to Music/TheWhiteStripes' ''Elephant'' renders the title in all capital letters and replaces the E's with backwards 3's. However, canonically it's still ''Elephant'', not ''[=3L3PHANT=]''. * Mr. 76ix (seventy-six)* [=N3XU5=], a Portuguese psytrance artist.* Finnish metal band Stam1na.* The Music/{{Accept}} song "Stand 4 What U R" from the ill-fated album "Eat the Heat".* "I Ain't The 1" on Music/{{NWA}}'s ''Music/StraightOuttaCompton''. * "Sinds 1 Dag Of 2" ("Since 1 Day Or 2") by Music/DoeMaar.* "5ynchr0ni7e" by Music/MindInABox, a SequelSong to "Synchronize" located earlier in the album track list.* In his "Word Crimes" song, Music/WeirdAlYankovic informs us that "You should never (Oh no) / Write words using numbers / Unless you're seven, or your name is Prince."[[/folder]]

[[folder:Vi2eo Games]]* ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' ostensibly has a reason for doing this (there are four survivors), but it would be a blatant lie if we said the marketing team didn't use the 4 in the title for this reason.* Some pins in ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou'' (e.g. Go 2 Hell) use this.** The math-obsessed Minamimoto takes this a bit further than usual. [[GeniusBonus "(It's x 2) die!"]]** The chapter titles are not exempt (e.g. Who 2 trust).* ''Wip3out'' and ''Driv3r''. Pronounced, presumably, "Whip Three Out" and "Driv Three Are"* The fourth ''VideoGame/{{Thief|2014}}'' game had the working title ''[=THI4F=]''.* ''[[VideoGame/TheIdolmaster THE iDOLM@STER]]''.* ''Dive II Hunt'', a flash game featuring a moogle named Sorbet who also appeared in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''.* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F3AR]]''.* ''VideoGame/Ready2RumbleBoxing''.* ''VideoGame/{{Shadowman}} 2: econd Coming''... errr... ''Shadowman: 2econd Coming''* ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'' is actually "Silent Hill 0(as in Zero)rigins".* The first trailer for ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare3'' ran on this: [="Am3rica, 3ngland, Franc3, G3rmany"=]** And then the ''VideoGame/SaintsRowTheThird'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K97u5usT9WY "Shock and Awesome"]] trailer parodied this with "[=St33lport=]".* ''Yume 2kki'', the fan-made sequel to the identically pronounced ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'' (the Japanese phoneme that represents the number two is "ni").* In ''Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!'', most of the cheat codes are phrases with the first letter O replaced with a zero.* The various 321 references to the deity EZI in ''VideoGame/EternalSonata''* Being a co-op focused game, ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankAll4One'' does this for pretty much the same reason as ''VideoGame/Left4Dead''. In addition, one of the potential subtitles the developers came up with was "4Play", which didn't make it through... for obvious reasons.* ''Ultim@te Race Pro''* Creator/BroderbundSoftware's name was actually written with a zero in many of their early games, since old computers' built-in fonts didn't include "Ø" but did have a similar-looking "0" with a slash through it.* In the ''VideoGame/JamesPond'' series, the piscine protagonist is an agent of F.I.5.H.* Some level passwords in both installments of ''[[VideoGame/TheLostVikings TH3 L05T V1K1Ng5]]'' are written in this way, which makes it harder to guess them if you're an impatient (or just curious) player.[[/folder]]

[[folder:We8comics]]* [=AIs=] in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' sometimes use numbers to substitute for letters, and even whole syllables, in their names; for example, "5er0" (pronounced "Ver-None") instead of Vernon.* There's a site called [[http://www.squirrelworks.com/ Squirrelworks]] that does this as well as often invoking [[XtremeKoolLetterz z for plural s and other text speak]] especially in their main comic ''Coz/Effect''.* ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'' has it right in the title, though WordOfGod justifies it on the basis of having a hard time securing a domain name in the "correct" spelling.* ''Webcomic/SequentialArt'' has four Squirrel Girls, who were subjects of a secret lab experiment. Their names all translate to a mix of letters and numbers, which are also color coded. Scarlet = 5C4R137, Jade = [=J4D3=], Amber = 4M83R, Violet = [=V10L37=].* Many of the trolls in ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'' do this, usually in a way that fits into some sort of NumerologicalMotif. Specifically:** [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Aradia]] replaces her O's with zeroes, representing the fact that she's an EmotionlessGirl.** Sollux replaces S's with 2's due to his [[NumerologicalMotif obsession with dualism and bifurcation.]] It also represents his [[SpeechImpediment lisp.]]*** [[spoiler:When he attains a sort of tranquility and has his teeth knocked out, he ad0pts the zer0-related m0tif that Aradia used.]] ** Nepeta replaces double E's with 33. This represents the mouths of her [[AnimalMotifs cat]] [[NoBloodTies lusus]], and also references her Trollian handle, arsenicCatnip, 33 being the atomic number for arsenic.** [[BlindSeer Terezi]] replaces A's, I's and E's with 4's, 1's, and 3's, respectively. They are referred to as '[[color:#008282:[=TH3 NUM3R4LS TH3 BL1ND PROPH3TS ONC3 US3D=]]]', since 413 is an ArcNumber in ''Homestuck''. Her counterpart, [[TotallyRadical Latula]], uses the same replacements but in lowercase.** [[ArachnidAppearanceAndAttire Vriska]] uses 8's to replace both B's and the sound 'ate'. This is due to her obsession with [[AnimalMotifs spiders]] and [[NumerologicalMotif the number 8.]] When she gets worked up, she goes even farther, replacing many of her vowels with 8's regardless of the sound they make.*** Aranea, Vriska's counterpart, uses a similar quirk, but in a much more subdued fashion: most of the time she uses 8's only to replace B's, and when she's upset she replaces the sound 'ate' with 8, but only where it's phonologically appropriate.** Equius replaces the sounds 'loo' and 'ool' with '100' and '001', probably a reference to his namesake Zahhak, known as "he who has 10,000 (one hundred hundred) horses."** Then there's Sollux's counterpart, Mituna, who has suffered a serious head injury in backstory and replaces letters with numbers virtually at random.** A fancomic, ''Webcomic/ACompleteWasteOfTime'', has a character with an inventive use for this trope. Rick's typing quirk consists of him replacing the first letter of a word with a numeral (from zero to ten) whose initial phoneme(s) most closely resembles the word's. [[color:#ff8000:7o 4or 8xample, 3hese 1ords]] were most likely written by him.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Wes7ern Animation]]* The French cartoon ''Foot2Rue''.* ''WesternAnimation/TheCritic'' parodied this trope with ''Dennis the Menace 2 Society''.[[/folder]]

[[folder:R3al Life]]* [[LeetLingo L3375P34|* 7up briefly made a beverage called dnL (look at it upside-down), which was basically 7up with caffeine. Also green in a clear white bottle.* Number plates/license plates.* There was once a flyer at a videogame store for a "4Play" marketing campaign, which let you know about special offers at that store. This was aimed at the 6- to 15-year-old crowd. Given that this happened in a non-anglophone country, [[YouKeepUsingThatWord they are probably oblivious to the fact that the word doesn't means what they think it means.]]** Channel 4 (UK) has/had a late night music show named 4Play.** G4 (USA) has a not-so-late night show named 4Play, which [[NetworkDecay started out]] as a game news/review program.* The production company Creator/FourKidsEntertainment.* Skateboard clothing company 323K13(upsidedown)7 (Ezekiel).* There is a shirt that has D 1 4 M 0 N 4 5 (Diamonds) written on it.* The 2econd Stage Theatre in New York.* General language/overseas culture examples:** [=URLs=] with numbers replacing words are surprisingly popular in China. Probably helps that they're easy to type and remember.** In the Japanese language, there's a LOT of ways[[note]]due to containing native, Chinese, and English pronunciations of numbers[[/note]] to replace kanas (and sometimes whole words) with numbers. Remember this when looking at Japanese screen-names and such with seemingly random numbers in them.** Often when someone is trying to speak Arabic online without an Arabic language pack, they'll use numbers in the place of letters of the Arabic alphabet. Maybe not a true example though, ''because'' those letters don't exist in the English alphabet and are usually represented in print by special punctuation that the computer may also not be able to make.*** Ma3ak 7a2 (loosely translates to "you're right")** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tresillo tresillo]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuatrillo cuatrillo]] are modified numerals, used as letters in some post-colonial Mayan languages.** Just as above, this combined with a variant of XtremeKoolLetterz comes up when trying to represent the International Phonetic Alphabet in ASCII. Of course, there's not much point to it anymore, since most programs you'd pass an IPA input to can now handle Unicode.* It's common to do this with passwords in order to include a letter or special character while keeping it easy-to-remember. It's advised not to do this, though, as most brute-force password-guessing algorithms are aware of the tendency and will go ahead and try swapping (for example) "@"s for "a"s and "1"s for "I"s when attempting to guess your password.** It's also quite common to do this with online usernames as on most sites, no two accounts can share the same name. So for instance, if flowerchild where already taken on a certain site, a new user may instead use f10w3rchi1d.* The mission patch for the first test flight (EFT-1) of NASA's Orion spacecraft has a stylized Orion drawing with the word "[=OR1ON=]" embossed over it.[[/folder]]